Trustees for the Vista Unified School District voted Thursday night to cut 11 bus routes and eliminate grades six through eight at the Vista Academy of Visual and Performing Arts.

Several parents spoke to the board in support of the bus routes, but even more came for a rally to save the district’s adult-education program. Dozens of people stayed past 11 p.m. to air their comments to the trustees, with many holding signs that read “Keep Adult Education Open,” “Don’t Stop Our Dreams” and other slogans.

Trustees had voted this month to send layoff notices to 80 teachers, an assistant principal and one program supervisor in the adult school because of uncertainty about how the program would be affected by Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to shift administration of such programs to community college districts. The layoffs may be rescinded later as details of the proposal become clearer; the district went ahead and issued the notices because under state law, they cannot be sent after March 15.

Because adult education was not on the board’s agenda, trustees did not discuss the public’s comments about it Thursday night.

Superintendent Devin Vodicka said he will travel to Sacramento next week to talk to state officials about the community support for adult-education programs run by K-12 districts.

Trustees did discuss and vote on eliminating bus routes after listening to a budget report about projected deficits during the next few years. The district’s second interim financial report includes expected revenue of $176 million and expenses of $190 million in the 2013-14 school year.

If deficit spending continues at the same rate, the report projects that the district’s reserve will drop from $35 million this school year to $10 million and then $1.5 million in the next two years.

With Trustee Jim Gibson dissenting, the board voted to eliminate 11 bus routes to save $770,000 and to cut two transportation staff positions to save an additional $100,000.

The board also supported a plan to reduce the number of special-education students using buses. About 21 percent of special-education students in the district ride buses, while the state average is 10 percent.

Of the $1.2 million the district hopes to save, Vodicka said $1 million could be used to reduce deficit spending and the rest should go toward vehicle replacements to the aging bus fleet.

Bus routes will remain for Breeze Hill and Mission Meadow elementary schools, and the district will study options for maintaining two other routes.

Most bus routes in the district are mandated for special-education students or as part of the federal No Child Left Behind law, leaving only 15 routes left to cut. Vodicka said the district will study the prospect of creating walking routes to various schools, with help from a San Diego group that specializes in safe walkways.

Also on Thursday, trustees voted to convert Vista Academy of Visual and Performing Arts from a K-8 school to K-5. Vodicka said the change was necessary because the school’s format is not cost-effective, some students can’t take certain electives, and the school is not drawing students from outside its boundaries, as originally intended.